Finding Paige
by CharmedLilAngel
Summary: Summary: Paige Matthews: The youngest of the Charmed Ones, introduced after Prue’s death. But what if that never happened? What if Prue never died? What if the sisters found Paige in the church and not the nun? A shift happens and Paige and Piper aren’t a
1. The Big Mistake

Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, I am not Brad Kern or Aaron Spelling or any of those rich men. I'm not even a man! Anyways…

A/N: This is my third fanfic, so I cant promise how well it's going to turn out. I don't usually get many reviews… I don't know if it's the fact that people don't like my stories or just don't choose to read them. If you like this one, check out my other ones; Baby Troubles and Going Back. So here it is: Finding Paige.

**Summary: Paige Matthews: The youngest of the Charmed Ones, introduced after Prue's death. But what if that never happened? What if Prue never died? What if the sisters found Paige in the church and not the nun? A shift happens and Paige and Piper aren't affected. However, when the shift occurs and Prue appears, Phoebe is affected and begins to sway Piper and Paige into not changing things and just leaving them the way they are. But of course, the Elders have something to say about that and send Leo to the girls. The girls are forced to go back in time and change things to the way that they're supposed to be. But is the Power of Four really worth changing?**

**Note: Leo was killed, saving the girls after becoming a mortal and the Elders gave him his Whitelighter abilities back.**

Chapter One: The Big Mistake

Current Day 

**Alleyway behind Forty-Third Street**

_3:45 P.M._

Paige Matthews-Halliwell and her oldest (alive) sister, Piper Halliwell, orbed into a deserted alley. Their other (middle) sister, Phoebe, had warned them about a demon attack on an innocent. Most of the time, Phoebe's power of premonition was vital in saving the lives of innocents.

"Here," Piper suggested. "We can hide behind this dumpster." She looked inside of it. "Oh, look! Empty, so no stink."

"I still don't see why Phoebe didn't have to come," Paige whined.

"Because, she isn't feeling good and that premonition just made it worse. She just needs some time by herself. We're stuck up each other's butts enough as is. Besides, we don't need the Power of Three for a few straggler Demons."

"Fine. But after this, no more skimping out for Phoebe."

"Agreed."

"Piper, look!" Paige whispered as she pointed to a man that walked out of a back door and into the alley. The two demons shimmered in behind him, energy balls in hand.

Piper leapt out from behind the dumpster. "Not so fast!" she cried.

"A Charmed One?" the first demon questioned.

"Two," Paige said, stepping out from behind the dumpster. "Go," she whispered to the innocent. He ran off as a demon started to chase after him. "Piper, now!"

Piper raised her hands and blew up both demons, one with each hand. She high-fived Paige and smiled. "Nice teamwork. Now let's get out of here."

Paige nodded and took hold of Piper's hand. She felt both of their bodies dissipate into many little orb particles.

Twenty Years in the Past 

**Manor**

_3:15 P.M._

Twenty years in the past, three little girls sat in the living room of their Grandmother's old Victorian style house. A circle of string around a load of marbles lay in front of them.

The eight-year-old turned to her youngest sister. "Your turn Phoebes."

"Gosh!" pressed the five-year-old. "You don't have to be so mean about it Piper."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Phoebe, you're too over dramatic!"

"Prue!" the youngest whined, "tell Piper to stop calling me names that I don't know what they mean!"

The eleven-year-old eldest looked from one sister to the other, then said half-heartedly, "Piper, don't call Phoebe names."

"That I don't know what they mean!" Phoebe finished. "At least when you call me 'stupid', I know that it means."

"Girls," Grams called warningly from the dining room. "Play nice."

Piper and Prue looked at each other and sighed. They knew that they were the ones being scolded. Phoebe never got yelled at.

"Guys," Prue sighed.

"Girls," Phoebe corrected.

"Whatever. I don't want to play marbles anymore. What about you two?"

"Nope," Piper replied.

"Nope," Phoebe repeated.

"Want to go for a walk?" Prue asked.

Phoebe's eyes widened in excitement as she vigorously nodded her head in agreement.

"Sure," Piper said. "Nothing else better to do. Let's go ask Grams."

"Okay!" The youngest hopped up and ran into the kitchen.

Piper and Prue stood up and followed her. When they got into the kitchen they saw Phoebe impatiently waiting for them with an annoyed look on her face.

Grams looked up at the girls and quickly covered the book she was writing in. None of the girls seemed to notice.

"Grams," Prue started, "may I take Piper and Phoebe on a walk?"

"Sure," she agreed. "I wouldn't see why not. It is a beautiful day."

"Yay!" Phoebe cried out happily. "I'll go and get my shoes on!"

Piper ran upstairs to fix her hair while Phoebe put her shoes on. When she came down the stairs, Prue was waiting by the door.

"C'mon Phoebes," Prue nagged. "Putting on shoes should only take half a minute, not half a day."

Phoebe came out of the living room. Piper and Prue looked at her feet and began laughing uncontrollably. Phoebe had two different shoes on and both were on the wrong foot.

"Go and get me the one that matches this one," Prue said pointing to the left shoe on the right foot. Phoebe nodded and ran to get the shoe. Prue put both shoes on the right feet and smiled kindly at her youngest sister. "That's how you do it. Now let's go!"

The three turned and walked out the door. Piper turned and looked at Prue. "So, where are we going?"

"I want to go to that old church. That place is spooky," Phoebe said with a shiver, but then slyly recovered with, "But it's cool."

"Fine by me," Prue replied nodding.

In about twenty minutes' time, they had reached their destination: The old church near the woods.

"Let's go inside," Phoebe pressed.

"I don't think that we should," the eldest warned.

"C'mon Prue. Don't be a party-pooper," the youngest argued. Those two did that a lot. They both turned to Piper. Most, no, all of the time she settled the arguments.

"I with Phoebes-" Piper stopped as they hear a small tinkling noise (orbs) from inside the church. That noise made her want to go in even more. She walked up to the old wooden door and pushed it open.

Phoebe and Prue crowded in behind her. Piper thought she saw something and stopped. "Guys," she whispered as she squinted to see what the white object in the middle of the church was.

"Girls," Phoebe corrected again.

"Whatever. Look at that," she said, pointing.

"What do you think it is?" Prue asked.

"I don't know. Let's go find out," Piper replied, heading further into the church.

When the three were about halfway into the church, they heard a small giggle. Both Piper and Prue turned to Phoebe.

"What? It wasn't me!" she protested. All three looked at the white object in the middle of the room.

"It looks like a baby carrier," Prue stated.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Piper teased.

"Guys, shh," Phoebe whispered as she edged closer to the object.

"Girls," Piper and Prue mimicked in a whisper. Now, all three sisters stood directly behind the object. Another soft giggle came from it and the three sisters shuffled around to the front. Inside, there was a tiny toddler with brown hair in pigtails and soft brown eyes. She looked about two years old.

"How do you think she got here?" Piper asked Prue.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Prue replied.

"I wonder if she can talk." Phoebe squatted down so that she was at eye-level with the little girl. "Do you know how old you are?"

The little girl looked confused for a moment but then held up two fingers. "'Most this many." Which translated to "Almost this many."

'Well, she can talk,' Prue thought. 'That's a plus.'

"Do you know your name?" Phoebe asked caringly.

The little girl smiled. "Pay, Pay, Paige. Paige." She kept repeating it until she got it right. When she did, she smiled triumphantly.

"I say we take her home to Grams. We can't just leave her. Besides, I think we could use another cheery spirit in the house since Mom died." Piper knew that it was a touchy subject but felt that it was true.

Prue and Phoebe nodded. Prue reached down and picked up the little girl and sat her on her hip. "So, Paige is it?" Paige nodded. "Do you want to go home with us?"

"Yeah!" she said excitedly.

Current Day 

**Halliwell Manor**

_4:05 P.M._

Back in the future, Paige and Piper orbed in the Manor's living room. Leo orbed in beside them a split second later. All three were shocked to see Phoebe sitting on the couch happily chatting away with Prue.

"Phoebe!" Piper said happily. "You found a way to contact her!"

"Pipe, I think that you've officially gone off the deep end. What do you mean 'contact her?'" Phoebe's face was painted with confusion.

"Duh, from the dead. Her spirit." Piper didn't understand why Phoebe was acting so stupid.

"What do you mean? What's wrong with you Piper? Prue's obviously not dead."

"Yea Piper. Do I look like I'm dead?" Prue asked, also confused.

"So you never died?" Paige asked slowly. "Then why am I still here?"

"What do you mean?"

"If Shax never killed you, then I shouldn't be here. That means that something in the past allowed the Power of Three to work."

"The Power of Three? There never was a Power of Three. We, all of us, used and still use the Power of Four," Prue explained.

"But how?" Piper didn't understand any of it. None of it was making any sense.

"Well, Grams told us about the Power of Four twelve years ago, the day after you turned ten, Paige."

"The day that we learned that were witches," Phoebe added.

"Oh, no," Leo said after he had heard all of the explanation.

"What is it?" Piper asked.

"I think that something happened in the past that made a shift. Something that assimilated Paige into your lives earlier than intended. And I think that the shift when the three of us were in mid orb. That's why we weren't affected like Phoebe was. Shifts like this have happened when others were in mid-orb and they weren't affect due to that fact," he explained.

He turned to Phoebe and Prue. "When did you first find Paige?"

Prue thought back. "I was eleven. It was right before her birthday. Grams told us that when we found her. I don't know how she could possibly know that but we were too young to question. She didn't want us to keep her when we came home with her. She said something about 'another mouth to feed,' and 'restoring the balance.' She finally gave in and let us keep her and she raised her. Eight years after that was when we found out that we were witches."

"Growing up, she taught us how to use and harness our powers. Then, seven years ago, she died. That's when we all moved back in here and relied on the Power of Four the most," Phoebe said.

"But four years ago, Prue, Shax killed you." Piper still could not comprehend what was going on.

"The Power of Four vanquished him."

"Piper, the time shift," Leo reminded her.

"Right," she muttered.

Leo heard a soft jingling and looked up at the ceiling. "Piper, I'm sorry. I'll be back and we'll sort this entire thing out. I promise." He kissed her softly and orbed out.

"So what do we do mow?" Paige asked.

"I guess we have them fill us in on the last twenty years or so?" Piper heaved a sigh and sat in the chair next to the couch.

"Sounds like a plan."

XoXoXoXoX

Two hours had passed and Piper and Paige had gathered a great deal of information from Phoebe and the newly returned Prue. Piper was still having trouble accepting and coping with the situation at hand.

Leo orbed in, a grave expression was painted on his face. He motioned for Piper and Paige to join him in the kitchen.

"The bearer of bad news, I presume?" Paige was used to getting the bad or worse things delivered Priority Leo.

"Actually, the Elders are looking around for more information as we speak. They want me to report back in a few minutes, their time. Which in our time means, right about… now." He smiled sweetly at a glaring Piper as he orbed out.

Paige and Piper walked back into the living room. They started chatting happily with Prue and Phoebe for the next half an hour. The more time Piper spent with Prue, the more her ached to know that it would all have to end. To see Phoebe sitting there, smiling, oblivious to the fact that this wasn't right just hurt Piper hurt even more. 'Would the Power of Four really be that bad?' she asked herself.

'Would it be that bad?'

**A/N: Okay. Sorry that was so long. The** **next chapter won't be as long. Let me know what you think and if you think that if I should keep going. I might but I'm not quite sure… Read and Review!**


	2. Missing Prodigies

Thank you to all of you who reviewed! Sorry I'm not typing responses to each one but I'm just not really with it today so I apologize if this chapter like sucks really bad. Although I do have to give credit to AllenPitt. You gave me a great idea for this next chapter.

Chapter Two: Missing Prodigies

Piper had excused herself so that she could run up and check on Wyatt and Chris, who were asleep in their room. She had promised to let Prue meet them when they got up from their nap. Prue had said that even though the time shift had occurred, she didn't have any recollection of Piper even getting pregnant, let alone twice. Piper quickly dismissed it and continued to go upstairs.

She poked her head through the door and was shocked by what she saw. The room was Grams' old sewing room. But they had changed it to the boy's bedroom years ago. "PAIGE!" Piper yelled in horrified frustration.

Paige heard Piper's scream and orbed upstairs. "What is it?" she asked.

"Look," Piper told her, pointing in the doorway. "They're not in there. They're not in there. Paige, I've lost my boys…. I can't lose them. They're my world." Tears stung at Piper's eyes.

"I know honey, I know." Paige hugged her sister and tried to comfort her. The truth was, she didn't want to lose those boys anymore than Piper did. "Go in and lay down, I'll straighten this all out."

Piper nodded as she walked somberly into her room and shut the door behind her. Paige ran up to the attic. She flipped through the Book and knew what she was going to do. She looked up and shouted, "I don't care which one, but one of you damn Elders better get your ass down here before I come up there!" A younger looking woman appeared in a flurry of orbs in Elder robes.

"What is it?" she asked calmly.

"What is it! What is it!" Paige mocked in outrage. "You took my nephews away! That's what it is! You can't just go messing with people's lives like that! It's not fair! After all we do for you, you want to go and pull this kind of stunt? People love them too much for you to just wipe them off the face of this earth. LEO!"

Leo appeared in orbs as he looked from Paige to the other Elder. "Kate," he acknowledged, dipping his head, slightly.

"Leo," she replied.

"What is it Paige?" he asked.

"Leo, they took your boys away," she said quietly. "They're gone."

"They never existed," Kate said.

"Bull, they never existed! They have been here with us as a family for almost two years!"

"No," she replied. "Due to the time shift, the boys were never conceived. Finding Paige did all of this. You weren't supposed to come into the sister's lives until after Prue died. This is why you must go back and restore the balance. It's either keeping your sister and losing Wyatt and Chris or fixing things and getting them back."

"You know what? I…. well…. I…." Paige was at a loss for words. With a glare directed toward Kate, she orbed out and into Piper's room.

"Honey," she said softly, walking over to Piper's bed. "We have to go back, you know that right?"

Piper's voice was muffled by her pillow, "I know but I want Prue to still be here."

"But do you want that at the cost of your boys?"

"I don't want to give up either. I love Prue and I love my sons. How can they expect me to choose? It's so hard, Paige."

"I know but you're going to have to. We need to fix things and put them back the way they were."

There was a soft knock on the door and Leo's head poked in. "I got us an earlier timeline. We can go back before you found Paige in the church. But we have to go back about a couple of weeks before hand."

"Thanks Leo," Paige said kindly. "We'll be out in a few."

"'Kay," he said, closing the door behind him.

"We can do this. I know that it'll be hard but we can do it.," Paige assured Piper.

"Okay," Piper said getting up. "Let's do it." They opened the door and headed down the stairs.

"You okay, Piper?" Phoebe asked.

"Fine," Piper replied. "Let's just get this done."

Leo handed her the spell as all five of them joined hands and read. When they opened their eyes, they were in the 1970's, in the attic of their house. They quietly listened to the voices that were coming up the stairs.

"Well, I need specifics, Patty. How exactly did you get here?"

"I don't know mom. I was just thinking about you and the girls and I was here. It was strange though, almost like I could feel my body dissolving."

"That's mom," Piper whispered. "She must be talking to Grams."

"C'mon, we need to get… ACHOOO!" Paige sneezed as a cloud of dust floated up to meet her nose.

"Good job Miss Discreet. Orb us out of here," Piper said urgently. She could already hear footsteps coming up to the attic. Paige grabbed her and Phoebe's arms and tried to orb. "It won't work." Everyone looked to Leo who now had shaggy blonde hair and stubble on his chin. "What happened to you?"

"I guess that I have to take the form I had back in this time since there can't be two grown adult me's running around."

"Well, can the you back then orb?" Paige asked.

He grabbed Prue's wrist and before she could grab onto someone else, they were gone, leaving Piper, Phoebe and Paige standing in the attic.

Grams and Patty stood in the doorway, mouths open. "Who are you?" Grams demanded.

"Uh… see… we can explain," Paige said.

**Well, there it is. Not as long but I hope it's the content that counts. Let me know what you think! And plus, I'm thinking about doing another Charmed fanfic but it'll be a cross-over with Crossing Jordan…… If you want to see it, then I'll write it and if you don't, then oh well. It just sounded kind of different to me… let me know what you think!**


	3. “Do you understand the words?”

**A/N: Well, so sorry that it took so long to update… I've been fairly busy. Well, I hope all of you like this story so far and I do hope that you all continue to read it.**

**AllenPitt: I think that they're going to "do what they can" and if it's not good enough, then tell the Elder's to STFU. Lol. Depending on how many people want me to keep both sisters, I just might.**

**ZeDude: Yea, it is pretty sucky. But it is normal by "Charmed" standards.**

**Charmedbaby11: Thanks and I do have three other fan fictions.**

**P3-Charmedforever: I am and I'm glad you like it.**

Chapter Three: "Do You Understand the Words That Are Coming Out Of My Mouth?"

"This is harder than I thought it would be," Paige whispered to Piper as they all sat on the couch in the living room, getting glares from Penny and Patty.

"For the sixth time, what are your names?" Grams asked impatiently.

"Well," Piper said. "I'm um… Allison, this is my cousin um… Alex," she said pointing to Phoebe. "And this is my other cousin Amy," she said pointing to Paige.

"How did you get in our attic?" She demanded.

"We'll get back to you when we find out."

"Wait!" Patty cried. "Mom, do you remember about a year ago when my daughters came back from the future to stop Nicholas? When I was pregnant with Phoebe? Those two look just like the two that came back that time. But I don't know who the third one is."

"Crap," Phoebe muttered. Patty walked over to them and hugged Phoebe and Piper.

"You look so different from last time, so much older." Patty looked over her two daughters. "Where's Prue?" she asked.

"To be honest, we don't know. And that's the way it works with time travel," Piper shrugged.

"So if you don't care, we'll be on our way," Paige said with a hopeful grin.

"Wait. We'll call my Whitelighter and see what he has to say about it." Penny suggested. "Leo!"

"Oh, crap," Phoebe muttered.

The 'hippie' version of Leo orbed in as if he had been in the past the whole time. "Yes?" he asked.

"Who is this third girl?"

"Um…. I…. don't…. know…" he said slowly.

"Leo, don't lie to me. We know who the other two are. And where's Prue?"

"She's safe. The other one is just a friend."

"Bring Prue here," Grams commanded.

Leo nodded and orbed out. He returned a few minutes later with Prue.

"My three little girls, again," Patty said hugging the three of them.

Paige sat on the couch with a frustrated look on her face. _Well, how are we supposed to get things back to normal if she doesn't even know that she's pregnant with me? _

"So, why are you here this time?" Patty asked.

"Um, well, we can't really tell you that right now," Phoebe said slowly.

Paige pulled Phoebe and Piper aside. "We need a spell that sends us further into the future. Right now, she doesn't even know that she's pregnant with me!"

"Fine, I'll think up a spell to get us ahead of where we are now," Phoebe said.

"_Send us where we need to go_

_For us to show_

_What our mother needs to know_

_And let us keep it on the down low?"_

Piper threw Phoebe a sideways glance. "Sorry," Phoebe replied. "It just came off the top of my head." As soon as the sentence was out of her mouth, the four sisters and Leo were whisked away as they stood in the old church.

"C'mon, let's go sit out front that way we can watch for ourselves," Piper suggested. The others nodded as they walked out front. After about forty minutes, they saw a group of three girls walking toward them. "Hi," Piper chirped.

The three girls eyed her suspiciously. "You're in our way," Little Prue told her.

"You're not allowed to go in there," Phoebe said. She and Piper looked at each other as a sudden wave of sadness washed over them. They wanted to find Paige. They wanted a life with Prue and Piper wasn't going to put up with sacrifice. She stood up.

"Let's go home," she said to the other four.

"But we have to-" Leo started.

"If the Elders want to pick a fight and not give me my boys, I'll fight but the Power of Four is going to have to do." Piper helped Prue, Phoebe and Paige off the ground. They walked away from the door and let the three girls in. "Spell?" she said turning to Phoebe.

Phoebe pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and read it. All five were back in their own time, in their attic.

"Take me up there," Piper commanded Leo. Leo looked at her.

"You know you're not allowed up there and you know that," he replied

"I don't care. Take me there NOW!" He nodded and grabbed her hand and orbed her "Up There." She stood face-to-face with Oden, who opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Piper. "Save it. You are going to give my boys back whether you like it or not, do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? The Power of Four is for the Greater good and if it doesn't work out then fine but I don't want to hear another complaint from any of you. You are NOT going to take my boys away. I am completely done with going along with the rules. Do you remember what happened the last time that the Cleaners took away _one_ of my sons? Well now that you have taken both, I can promise you that the consequences will be much more severe and if you thought that keeping 'the big secret' was hard before, you're going to have to deal with four very pissed off witches and two very very pissed off Whitelighters. I can't speak for Leo but I can speak for Paige and she will not be willing to help any of you any more just like the rest of us will. I am finally taking a stand for all of this. All of the innocents that we have saved and you can't even cut us a break. And I'm sure that the number will grow with the Power of Four. So here's what's going to happen, you're going to give me my boys back, you're going to modify our memories so that we still remember this but we will be able to recount the memories with Prue that we missed out on because of the orb and you will do it without complaint. Do you understand me?"

"We can't-" Oden started but was cut off by Piper.

" You want to push my buttons buster? We will unleash every demon in that Book of Shadows and laugh and watch as they overrun the world. We will not help you." Piper knew that this was an empty threat but they didn't.

"Fine," Oden said as he waved his hand and Wyatt and Chris appeared in Piper and Leo's arms. "And now," He waved his hand again. "Your and Paige's memories have been modified."

Piper smiled as the memories came flooding to her. "Thank you." She turned to leave but turned back. "Take it all away and see what happens."

Leo and Chris orbed out and Piper did so with Wyatt. They appeared in the attic. Paige ran up to Piper and hugged her. "You did it! Man, what did you say to them?"

"You don't want to know," Piper and Leo replied together. Piper set Wyatt down and smiled. She turned her back and began to walk toward Phoebe and Prue when she heard Paige scream. "Piper! Look!"

**A/N: Yes, I know… a cliffie. Well, I hope you all are enjoying this story so far… I would openly take thoughts or ideas if you have them because I'm beginning to draw a blank….**


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